Saint Gertrude Parish - Lasne

21. What then will become of us after death? With Jesus, beyond the threshold, there is eternal life, which consists in full communion with God, in contemplation and participation in his infinite love. What we experience today in hope, we will then see in reality. Saint Augustine wrote in this regard: “When I am united to you with my whole being, then there will be no more pain, no more work; my life will be fully alive, being entirely filled with you.” [16] What, then, will characterize this fullness of communion? Happiness. Happiness is the vocation of humankind, an objective that concerns everyone.

But what is happiness? What kind of happiness do we long for and desire? Not a fleeting joy, an ephemeral satisfaction that, once attained, demands ever more in a spiral of desires where the human soul is never satiated but always emptier. We need a happiness that is definitively fulfilled in that which brings us to flourish, that is, in love, so that we can say, right now: I am loved, therefore I exist; and I will always exist in the Love that never disappoints and from which nothing and no one can ever separate me. Let us recall once again the words of the apostle: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor heavenly rulers, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither heights nor depths, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:38-39).